Body Parts (1991) - 24th November 2021 - Imprint Films

[DawnShadow]

Where does evil live, the heart, the mind or the flesh?

Body Parts is a bone-chilling tale about a medical experiment gone wrong. After a crime psychologist (Fahey) loses his arm and nearly his life in a grisly car accident, he undergoes a daring medical operation to have a donor arm grafted onto his body. But after the operation, the arm starts to take on a violent life of its own, striking out against Bill’s wife and children. Bill is driven to learn about the donor’s identity – a horrifying discovery that delivers him into a world of unimaginable terror.

Eric Red’s underrated 90s horror macabre is overdue for reappraisal.

Special Features and Technical Specs:
• 1080p High definition presentation
• NEW Audio Commentary with film historian Lee Gambin
• Audio Commentary by director Eric Red
• Interview with Co-Writer/Director Eric Red
• Interview with Editor Anthony Redman
• Interview with Actor Paul Ben-Victor
• Interview with Actor Peter Murnik
• Deleted Footage (with optional commentary by Eric Red)
• LPCM 2.0 audio
• Original aspect ratio 2.35:1
• Theatrical Trailer
• Optional English subtitles
• Limited Edition slipcase on the first 2000 copies with unique artwork

Pre-order : https://viavision.com.au/shop/body-parts-1991/

[Alister_M]

The Shout version of this got a pretty poor PQ review, wonder if this will be a different scan or the same one?

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Most probably the same (awful, dated looking) Paramount HD master. For American/export films like these Aussie labels just get whatever masters the rightsholder have on hand.

[voivod2015]

I'll have to look into getting this one. I just got in the SF Region A version. Hopefully they put out a version of Lawnmower Man too. Also, strange that they're listing it as MA, yet my old CIC VHS has it as being rated R. I guess the standards have changed over the past 30 years.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by voivod2015

I'll have to look into getting this one. I just got in the SF Region A version. Hopefully they put out a version of Lawnmower Man too. Also, strange that they're listing it as MA, yet my old CIC VHS has it as being rated R. I guess the standards have changed over the past 30 years.

MA didn't exist until 1993. There's quite a few movies made prior to then that got an R at the time and have had since the rating downgraded - Predator 2, The Shining, The Godfather, Total Recall and Re-Animator are just a handful of examples.

[TAON]

So has anyone got this other new release of Body Parts yet?
More than likely the same transfer as the Shout American release but still it would be good to have some comments about this.

[voivod2015]

Got my copy in today. No difference at all from the Shout Factory version except an extra commentary from the film historian Lee Gambin. No reversible cover either, but it does have a nice slipcase.

[ThisKid]

Originally Posted by TAON

So has anyone got this other new release of Body Parts yet?
More than likely the same transfer as the Shout American release but still it would be good to have some comments about this.

Originally Posted by voivod2015

Got my copy in today. No difference at all from the Shout Factory version except an extra commentary from the film historian Lee Gambin. No reversible cover either, but it does have a nice slipcase.

I noticed while watching my copy that even the subtitles were in the same font as the Shout Factory edition, so this is an easy edition to grab if one wanted the Shout edition but didn’t want to pay import fees.

[Markgway]

Shout edition... but worse.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...0&l=1&i=0&go=1

[DawnShadow]

Unless the screenshots are mislabelled, the Imprint looks far better to me. There's always a first.

What is it that makes you say it's worse than Shout?

[Alister_M]

I couldn't see much difference until I brought up this one look at the level of detail on that wooden box thingy in the lower left corner especially, on the Shout it looks like it's swarming with scanner noise, but on the Imprint it looks well defined and you can see the natural grain of the wood which is all scrambled and mushy in the Shout cap. If you look closely at this whole shot, a lot of fine detail is much more visible in the Imprint one.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...87318&i=12&l=1

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Unless the screenshots are mislabelled, the Imprint looks far better to me. There's always a first.

What is it that makes you say it's worse than Shout?

Not sure if it's down to artificial sharpening but there's a vertical line effect that plagues the Imprint caps.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...5&l=1&i=5&go=1

Someone more knowledgable than I can probably give you the technical name for it.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by Markgway

Not sure if it's down to artificial sharpening but there's a vertical line effect that plagues the Imprint caps.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...5&l=1&i=5&go=1

Someone more knowledgable than I can probably give you the technical name for it.

Looks like you're gaslighting yourself a bit if you ask me The Imprint looks like it could have had a *touch* of sharpening applied, but there's no denying it has significantly more fine detail and especially more shadow detail.

[Dailyan]

The Imprint is littered with grid/scanner noise and the encoding looks worse than Shout's disc. Like "Silver Bullet", Shout filtered out the grid/scanner noise on the master.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

The Imprint is littered with grid/scanner noise and the encoding looks worse than Shout's disc. Like "Silver Bullet", Shout filtered out the grid/scanner noise on the master.

It's the sort of artefact that's fine enough to be practically invisible in motion anyway. If you want to see some truly egregious grid noise (exaggerated by some piss-poor encoding), check out Vendetta's theatrical-cut release of The Girl Who Played With Fire. That fine mess looks like it's had a transparent impression of a tartan blanket superimposed over the entire image

In this case, I'll take a bit of scanner noise over filtering which wipes out some fine detail and introduces its own additional noise. They're both pretty crap, but at least to my eyes, Imprint looks like it'll be a more pleasing image in motion.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

The Imprint is littered with grid/scanner noise and the encoding looks worse than Shout's disc. Like "Silver Bullet", Shout filtered out the grid/scanner noise on the master.

Thank you.

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by Markgway

Thank you.

Except Shout filtered out fine detail. No thank you.

[hypnotoad8128]

Originally Posted by voivod2015

No reversible cover either, but it does have a nice slipcase.

IMPRINT releases don't have alternate cover art reversible slip that you can flip over in the Amaray case, just an image of a scene from the film on the inside of the slip. The Alternate cover art is on the slipcase itself.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by WaverBoy

Except Shout filtered out fine detail. No thank you.

I'm not seeing any extra detail on the Imprint. Only artificial noise.

[Abdrewes]

Overall it's not unwatchable but the vertical noise is pretty bad on this one. Glad I didn't pay more than $8 for it.